Saddam verdict a milestone, says Bush

With a eye on the elections, the United States President, George W. Bush, Sunday said the death sentence pronounced to the former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein by a tribunal in Baghdad would be recorded in history as an important achievement on the path to a free and just and unified society and praised the role of American soldiers to make this happen. “Without their courage and skill, today’s verdict would not have happened,” he said.

In the middle of his election campaign in Texas, Bush in a statement said that Hussein’s trial is a “milestone” in the Iraqi people’s efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

“It’s a major achievement for Iraq’s young democracy and its constitutional government,” Bush said in his first reaction after the judgment was announced by a Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad.

Deposed on April 9, 2003, after the US -led forces entered Baghdad and captured by the U.S. forces on December 13, 2003, Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by the tribunal for the massacre committed by his regime in the town of Dujayl.

Bush said, Hussein who once struck fear in the hearts of Iraqis “had to listen” during his trial to free Iraqis recount the acts of torture and murder that he ordered against their families and against them. “Today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come,” he said.

Stating that Hussein will have an automatic right to appeal his sentence; Bush said he will continue to receive the due process and legal rights that he denied to Iraqi people. “Iraq has a lot of work ahead as it builds its society that delivers equal justice and protects all its citizens,” he said.

Using the opportunity to appeal his domestic audience on the eve of the crucial election where his Republican party is trailing behind the Democrats, Bush praised the role of the American soldiers in Iraq.

“We give our thanks to the men and women of America’s Armed Forces, who have sacrificed so much for the cause of freedom in Iraq — and they’ve sacrificed for the security of the United States,” Bush said.